Bob Giloth has worked for nonprofits for thirty years with a focus on community economic development. As a practitioner and social investor he is interested in the preconditions and challenges of good strategy and implementation -- values, partners, timing, complexity, and mistakes.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Demand Please!

"Inadequate consumer demand was far and away the most important obstacle to growth for green businesses. Seventy-onepercent of all respondents cited a lack of demand from consumers, while 40 percent referenced a lack of demand from businesses, and 19 percent lack of demand from government."

Don't you love business -- so straightforward? We can't grow unless their is consumer demand, consumers, businesses, government entities that will buy our products and services. Rhetoric won't do it, hopeful thinking won't do it -- somebody has to be willing to buy.

I've always thought that we got it backwards on green -- training before economic development -- and a focus on jobs rather than businesses. If there isn't consumer demand for business products and services, they don't demand new workers and expanded hours for existing workers. That's the way it works in the end.

Obviously, lots of folks have been working on the policy frameworks needed to create the demand -- and promising successes. We just need more -- and success that breaks into the private market.